Mediehistoria / Media history

Ordförande / chair Henrik Örnebring (henrik.ornebring AT politics.ox.ac.uk)
Viceordförande / vice chair Eva Ekstrand (eed AT hig.se)

Fredagen den 17 augusti/ Friday 17th of August

Tid/ Time	Författare/ Author	Kommentator/ Commentator
9.00-9.20	Introduction (HÖ & EE)
9.20-9.40	Monika Djerf-Pierre	Henrik G Bastiansen
9.40-10.00	Roosmari Kurvits	Laura Saarenmaa
10.00-10.20	Eva Ekstrand	Monika Djerf-Pierre
10.30-11.00	Kaffepaus/ Coffee break
11.00-11.20	Rolf Werenskjold	Mats Hyvönen
11.20-11.40	Merja Ellefson	Roosmari Kurvits
11.40-12.00	Anne Karin Saether	Merja Ellefson
12.30-13.30	Lunch
13.30-13.50	Mats Hyvönen	Arne Johansen Ijäs
13.50-14.10	Laura Saarenmaa	Tiiu Kreegipuu
14.10-14.30	Per Vesterlund	Anne Karin Saether
14.30-14.50	Sari Elfving	Eva Ekstrand

Lördagen den 18 augusti/ Saturday 18th of August

Tid/ Time	Författare/ Author	Kommentator/ Commentator
9.00-9.20	Henrik G Bastiansen	Niels Brügger
9.20-9.40	Tomi Lindblom	Kjartan Olofsson
9.40-10.00	Henrik Örnebring	Tomi Lindblom
10.00-10.20	Niels Brügger	Henrik Örnebring
10.30-11.00	Kaffepaus/ Coffee break
11.00-11.20	Arne Johansen Ijäs	Rolf Werenskjold
11.20-11.40	Tiiu Kreegipuu	Sari Elfving
11.40-12.00	Kjartan Olofsson	Per Vesterlund
12.10-12.20	Summing up + discussion of arrangements for the next conference

Abstrakter/ Abstracts

The formation and first development of a genre system – the case of Norwegian broadcast radio
Wenche Vagle
Faculty of Arts, University of Oslo

The paper presents findings from a study on the text history of Norwegian radio in the interwar years (1925-1940) (Vagle 2007). The study reveals that the programmes of the 1920s were mostly imperfect reproductions of existent cultural forms. Yet, a beginning modernisation of the genre repertoire took place in the 1930s. Whereas the rudimentary repertoire of the 1920s was built up by way of plain copying from other domains in society, the latter half of the 1930s saw the introduction of a more advanced genre-generating process whereby new genres were formed through the mixing of two or more existing text norms. The study showed that a number of developmental trends, which have marked the evolution of the radio’s registers and genres ever since, appeared already in the 1920s. The patterns of change go in the direction of: • Greater diversity and variation in forms and contents • Enhanced continuity • Shorter texts • Serialisation • Fixed scheduling • Multi-voice formats • Greater mixing of elements within programmes • Growing accent on the communicative goals of information/actuality and entertainment Vagle, Wenche. 2007. ”I think the listeners would like me to ask you, Mr Prime Minister, …”. The history of texts and contexts in Norwegian radio with emphasis on the early period. Doctoral dissertation. University of Oslo, Faculty of Arts

The Outward Appearance of Estonian Newspapers 1806–1940 and Mervola's Appearance Spiral
Roosmarii Kurvits
University of Tartu

Pekka Mervola (Kirja, kirjavampi, sanomalehti; 1995) has divided history of outward appearance of Finnish newspapers into four eras: the era of book typography, of the corset, of parading pages, and of modules. To explain the changes of the eras, Mervola has created a model – the appearance spiral. He says that the appearance of newspaper is a reflection of the volume of newspaper’s contents. The increase in the volume of contents creates pressure on the previous appearance of newspapers. When the volume of contents has tipled from the time of the onset of the period, there arises a need to rearrange the contents and the appearance of newspapers. On the other hand, the volume of contents is influenced by the social and economic situation. The aims of this paper are: • to find the main periods in the appearance of Estonian newspapers from the first Estonian language newspaper (1806) up to the Soviet occupation (1940) and their main characteristics; • to explore two problems: – do periods of the appearance of Finnish and Estonian newspapers correspond to each other; – is it possible to use Mervola’s appearance spiral to explain the changes of periods of appearance of Estonian newspapers. My main method is content analysis. My data come from three Estonian central newspapers at an interval of five years. At least 12 issues (weekly papers) or 6 issues (daily papers) were included each year.

Trettiotalets antifascistiska bildjournalistik – några exempel
Eva Ekstrand
Högskolan I Gävle

På Stockholmsutställningen 1930 manifesterades uppgörelsen med det gamla samhället i den moderna Bauhausstilen. För den socialdemokratiska kvinnotidskriften Morgonbris (1904- ) del kom den stora stilmässiga förändringen - på ytan - först något år senare med en ny typ av layout. Kaj Andersson lade ut sidorna enligt ett nytt modernt snitt med större sidformat, ny papperstyp som var bättre lämpad för foto och rena ytor. Ut med gamla vinjetter, inramningar och bokstavsträngsel i spalterna och in med vita ytor, uppbrutna spalter och bilder på kors och tvärs. Redaktören influerades både av den ryska avantgardefilmen och av den internationella pressen. I några opublicerade anteckningar skriver hon: ”Inspirerad av bildverkan i nämnda filmer /.../ slog jag fram bilden i Morgonbris. Det var förresten den ryskinspirerade vinjetten på Vi kvinnor i fabriken som animerade Morgonbris dåvarande ledning att engagera mig för att göra något nytt av denna tidning. På så sätt blev det jag som i svensk press lanserade det moderna fotot.” (Citat ur avhandlingen Kaj Anderssons Morgonbris. Kvinnopress, trettiotal och längtan efter fri tid. Eva Ekstrand 2007, s 73) Det moderna fotografiet och fotomontaget blev en typ av bildretorik i den antifascistiska kritiken. Med utgångspunkt i några exempel på omslagsbilder i Morgonbris under trettiotalet diskuteras influenserna av (prel) franska tidskriften Vu och den tyska Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung.

Nyhetsankare - om tilltal och autenticitet i brytpunkten mellan monopol och konkurrens
Anna Edin
Högskolan i Gävle

Papret handlar om tv-personlighet(er) i svensk tv, med särskild fokus på nyhetsankare/presentatörer, under de sista åren av monopol och de första i konkurrensens tidsålder (dvs slutet av 1980-talet och början av 1990-talet). Studien inkluderar både public service-televisionen, SVT, och några av de kommersiella kanaler som relativt snabbt etablerades, TV3 och TV4. I fokus står frågor om tilltal, autenticitet och trovärdighet (se t ex Fiske 1987; Morse 1985 och 2004; Powers 1977; Stade 1990), och en diskussion kring nyhetsankarnas/presentatörernas sociala och kulturella betydelser (jmf t ex Brundson & Morley 1978; Ellis 2000). Vissa nutida jämförelser kommer också att göras(Edin 2007).

En kvantitativ analyse av mediedekningen av det globale 1968-opprøret i de tre største norske avisene, Aftenposten, Dagbladet og Arbeiderbladet, med spesielt fokus på dekningen av opprøret i de øvrige Skandinaviske landene.
Rolf Werenskjold
Faculty of Media and Journalism, Volda University College

All nyere internasjonal forskning har lagt vekten på medias betydning for spredningen av det globale 1968-opprøret. Gjennom dekningen i media fikk aktivistene i de mange ulike land en følelse av å tilhøre en global bevegelse som kjempet for lignende politiske målsetninger. Også de etablerte elitene vurderte at media, spesielt fjernsynet, spilte en viktig rolle i spredningen av sosial og politisk uro. Det finnes imidlertid få studier av 1968-opprøret og hvordan spredningen gjennom media foregikk, hva slags opprør mediene formidlet og hvor nyhetsdekningen kom fra. Eksisterende forskning har tatt det for gitt som a priori at mediene spredte opprøret. Denne forskningsposisjonen har understreket opprørets globale karakter i en tid da det var teknisk mulig å overføre fjernsynssendinger via satellitt og hvor de internasjonale nyhetsbyråene leverte nyhetsstoff fra hele verden. Mange har hevdet at 1968-opprøret er et tidlig utkikkspunkt for å forstå elementer i globaliseringsprosessene innenfor media i det tjuende århundre. I 1968 befant Norge seg i periferien i forhold til begivenhetene i kjerneområdene for opprøret (som man også hadde gjort i 1780-årene og i 1848). Virkningene fra det globale 1968-opprøret kom først noe etterkant, spesielt fra 1969 og utover tidlig på 1970-tallet. I motsetning til under opprøret i USA, i europeiske land som Vest-Tyskland, Italia og Frankrike, foregikk det ingen massemobilisering i Norge i 1968. Man fikk ingen store massedemonstrasjoner og sammenstøt mellom demonstranter og politi i gatene i Norge – slik man opplevde også i Danmark og Sverige. Kan den manglende massemobiliseringen i Norge forklares med manglende formidling av det globale opprøret i landets medier, i en periode hvor dagsavisene fremdeles var partiaviser og pr. definisjon tilhørte de etablerte elitene? Problemstillingen kaller på både en kvantitativ og en kvalitativ analyse av medietekstene om fenomenet. Dette paperet gir en kvantitativ analyse av dekningen av det globale 1968-opprøret i de tre største og dominerende norske dagsavisene Aftenposten, Dagbladet og Arbeiderbladet. Disse avisene var i 1968, sammen med utenriksavdelingen i NRK, dominerende i formidlingen av utenlandsnyheter i Norge. Analysen er basert på nyhetsdekningen og det redaksjonelle stoffet avgrenset til året 1968, da opprøret var på sitt mest intense. Paperet retter et spesielt fokus mot dekningen av 1968-opprøret i de øvrige Skandinaviske land. Tyngdepunktet i paperet er lagt på hva mediedekningen om opprøret kan si om mediene selv, og ikke i første rekke som en kilde for å forstå opprøret som fenomen. På et overordnet nivå kan en analyse av mediedekningen kan gi viktige bidrag til å forstå hvordan de nasjonale norske elitene tolket opprøret, og til å vurdere 1968-opprørets globale eller nasjonale karakter.

“State is My Shepherd” - Representation of Normalcy and Otherness in the 1930’ Swedish Press
Merja Ellefson
Institutionen för journalistik, medier och kommunikation (JMK), Stockholms universitet

My intention is to study the picture of various types of Others – groups that are described as deviant or as a problem – in the Swedish press in late 1930’s. Nationalist, racist and religious beliefs are central parts of the cultural conditions of our knowledge and they are positioned inside the struggle of knowledge-power. However, in my view discrimination depends, not only on a possible racist heritage, but also on the way we imagine and govern the state and its population. Therefore, I have chosen not to focus on ethnic minorities only. My ambition is to identify which types of groups are depicted as deviant, why they are thought to be different and how this may affect the image of normalcy. My aim is to draft an outline containing the problem of welfare of all and of citizenship, the link between pastoral power and instruments of state, and the role of communication in the processes of inclusion and exclusion. An important aspect in the welfare of the population is the Foucauldian concepts of pastoral power, reason of state and biopolitics, which has to do with the administration of people’s living conditions. Media plays an important role in the discourse about nation, modernity and social engineering by popularizing various scientific and national discourses. In essence, we are dealing with myth building and myth-telling. The material examined consists of four Stockholm-based newspapers: Dagens Nyheter, Stockholms-Tidningen, Svenska Dagbladet and Social-Demokraten.

Norske mediebilder av Latin-Amerika
Anne Karin Sæther

Studien "Norske mediebilder av Latin-Amerika" er tilknyttet prosjektene Fra halvkoloni til humanitær stormakt: Hundre år med "de andre" i norsk presse og Mistenkelige Utlendinger, begge ledet av Anne Hege Simonsen og Elisabeth Eide. Denne studien undersøker norske avisers omtale av Latin-Amerika i utvalgte år i perioden fra 1902 og 2002. Den teoretiske tilnærmingen er globaliseringsterori og diskursteori, og metodene er kvantitativ analyse av et datamateriale bestående av 638 tekster og en mer kvalitativ analyse bestående av utvalgte tekster. Funnene viser at Latin-Amerika-dekningen er liten og preget av en stor andel notiser. Konflikt er et dominerende tema, som sammen med et stort antall tekster om krig, kriminalitet og katastrofer bidrar til å framstille Latin-Amerika som et område preget av kriser, vold og uro. Vi finner også en tendens til økende tabloidisering, der tema som sport og kjendiser får stadig mer oppmerksomhet. 1980-årene framstår som en periode med unormalt stor Latin-Amerika-dekning, og dette skyldes hovedaklig USAs utenrikspolitikk, den kalde krigen og konfliktene i Mellom-Amerika. Internasjonale maktstrukturer framstår generelt som en viktig forklaringsfaktor for dekningen, antakelig viktigere enn den generelle medieglobaliseringen.

Media content and representations in Estonia 1940 - 2005
Maarja Lõhmus
Dep of Journalism and Communication, University of Tartu

Our study is based on a content analysis of Estonian media from 1940 to 2005, incl. approx. 3500 coded articles from 6 newspapers. The question we ask in this presentation, is how did ‘cultural indicators’ (G. Gerbner) work while being influenced by political regimes. We specially studied the evolution of ‘cultural indicators’, and got results about changes in the functions of media, formats and genres, sources (both: personal and impersonal), stratifications and the roles of “public” in society, thematic structure, structures of attitudes, value systems, differences of Estonian and Russian media in Estonia. We also clarified that the composition of reflexive and constructive elements in media texts is dependent of sociopolitical period.

Ytringsfrihet og blasfemi. En komparativ analyse av ytringsfrihetbegrepets bruk og begrunnelse
Åke Refsdal Moe
Department of Media and Communication; University of Oslo

Ytringsfriheten er et hyppig benyttet begrep i offentlig debatt. Likevel er det sjelden ytringsfrihetens begrunnelse diskuteres i et prinsipielt perspektiv i slike sammenhenger. Når det likevel skjer er det ofte som utslag av brede kontroverser hvor forholdet mellom religiøs tro og ytringsfrihet står sentralt. Paperets hovedformål er å undersøke hvordan ytringsfrihetsbegrepet brukes og begrunnes av ulike aktører i mediedebatter hvor forholdet mellom religiøse trosforestillinger og ytringsfriheten er et sentralt element. Undersøkelsen gjennomføres som en komparativ tekstanalyse med utgangspunkt i norsk presses dekning av tre slike kontroverser med et historisk spenn på 75 år; den såkalte Øverland-saken (1933), Rushdie-saken (1990) og den såkalte karikaturstriden (2006). Sentralt står en påstand om at ytringsfrihetsbegrepets bruk og begrunnelse har gjennomgått en historisk endringsprosess. Samtidig innehar begrepet i dag et fortolkningspotensial som muliggjør en diskursiv kamp om definisjonsmakten, noe som benyttes strategisk av ulike aktører i debatten.

Visuell välfärdsretorik – bilder av lönearbetete och arbetsmarknad i svenskt efterkrigstid
Mats Hyvönen
Högskolan i Gävle

Syftet med mitt paper är att diskutera hur audiovisuella medier användes i formeringen av det svenska välfärdssamhället efter andra världskriget. Som utgångspunkt tas bilder (även i betydelsen diskursiva föreställningar) av lönearbete och arbetsmarknad i arbetarrörelsens medieproduktion. Några inledande undersökningar har gjorts med skilda typer av källmaterial: Filmer, broschyrer och affischer, men även tidningsartiklar från en tävling, ”Industrins A-flicka”, som Morgon-Tidningen (MT) genomförde åren 1951-1953. Kring lönearbetet och arbetsmarknaden aktualiseras centrala politisk-ideologiska teman om människan och samhället (samt relationen dem mellan). Bilder av lönearbete och arbetsmarknad ger inte bara kunskap om hur mottagaren kan förstås (till exempel ”arbetaren”, ”svensken” och ”medborgaren” som konstruerade och generaliserade identiteter). Med utgångspunkt i arbetarrörelsens medieproduktion studeras också hur avsändaren definierar sig i förhållande till mottagaren. Denna relation undersöks i ett tredje steg som en övergripande ”bild”; hur förstås det samhälle i vilken denna relation existerar? 1950-talet utgör en intressant period i en alltmer tekniskt sofistikerad och massmedialiserad tidsålder i vilken medierna och politiken flätas samman med varandra. Moderna visuella massmedier blir allt viktigare som medskapare av föreställningar kring lönearbete, arbetsmarknad och det välfärdssamhälle som tar form efter andra världskriget.

Masculine intimacies. Re-reading Finnish yellow press of the 1960s and 1970s
Laura Saarenmaa
University of Tampere

Intimisation of media culture has often been explained by strengthening of feminine voices dealing with intimate issues in the field of popular media. However, it was men who first introduced the intimate discourse in the “yellow press” in the mid 1960s. Finnish scandal magazines and mens’ magazines of the 1960s and 1970s are marked by voices of masculine intimacies; stories of mens’ personal tragedies, injustices, shame, hurt and gossip. Rather than masculine intimacies, the stories have been interpreted in the framework of social politics and structural change of the society. In the paper the stories are read in a different way. They are interpreted as comforting voices of insecurity during the period when the cultural ideals of masculinity where in change.

Svensk bostad i rörlig bild: HSB:s filmproduktion
Per Vesterlund
Avdelningen för medier, kommunikation och film Institutionen för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap Högskolan i Gävle

HSB – Hyresgästernas sparkasse- och byggnadsförening – bildades 1923. I samarbete med olika filmbolag gör man från fyrtiotalets mitt en rad filmer av varierande karaktär. Dels förevigas HSB:s årliga konferenser, dels producerar man en rad filmer för att informera om (och dokumentera) bostadsbyggande och bostadspolitik. Grundtankarna i en socialt medveten bostadspolitik skulle spridas till det svenska folket. Under 1900-talets mitt hade filmmediet intagit rollen som det dominerande visuella massmediet. Detta är inte minst synligt i ett nationellt svenskt perspektiv där politiska partier och myndigheter och näringsliv intensivt samverkade med filmindustrin. Denna filmpraktik skulle kunna studeras ur ett effektperspektiv – med frågor som rör ideologi, påverkan och hegemoni i fokus. Dessa filmer visualiserade folkhemmet och moderniteten Samtidigt kan andra typer av frågor om offentlighet och retorik ställas - frågor som rör dessa filmers relation till en omgivande visuell kultur och dess retoriska och genremässiga konventioner. Ett historiska källvärde har filmerna också på ett högst manifest plan: dels i och med det faktum att de producerats (och därmed påvisar filmens status som medium i sin samtid), dels i och med de verksamheter de bokstavligen visar – i HSB:s fall som indexikala tecken för förnyelsen av det svenska urbana landskapet. Genom ett antal filmexempel kommer jag att ge exempel på både filmiska stilfigurer och arkitektonisk representation i HSB:s filmer.

Intimate friends and startling comets. Television stardom in Finnish media history
Sari Elfving
University of Tampere

Intimate friends and startling comets Television stardom in Finnish media history. As American television scholars Cecelia Tichi and Lynn Spigel have noted, the so called television environment has been constituted for the most part outside TV itself – in magazines and newspapers. (Tichi 1992, Spigel 1992) According to Tichi in the United Stated “they speak about and behalf of, the object, television”. My presentation will discuss how the Finnish television environment got constructed in magazines during the 1960’s and the 70’s. As some scholars in media history have suggested, the relationship between TV and the magazines has been based on synergy (a principle of reciprocial gain). My presentation discusses one form of this synergy in detail: how where popular television performes discussed in the press? How did they become intermedial stars? My presentation will discuss the subject of media history from the perspective of intermediality. It is based on on-going dissertation project for the University of Tampere.

The Mobile Phone in Norway - from idea to everymans tool
Henrik G. Bastiansen
The Norwegian Press History Project

This paper is a study of how the mobile telephone has become everymans tool in Norway. The process has taken abourt 40 years, starting in the late 1960s and ever expanding since that: during the 1970s 1980s and 90s. The paper presents different stages in the diffusion process of the mobile, and is also discussing the role of other media in relation to the success of the phone, espesially the role of newspapers and of advertising. The paper is treating the mobile phone as a part of newer media history in Norway.

History of New Media in the Three Largest Media Companies in Finland
Tomi Lindblom
University of Helsinki

Finnish media companies started to publish their content on the Internet in 1995. This paper tells about the editorial and financial strategies related to Internet, mobile services and other forms of new media in the three largest media companies in Finland: Alma Media (including e.g. MTV3), Yleisradio (Finnish Broadcasting Company) and Sanoma Oy (including e.g. Helsingin Sanomat). This study gives answers to the questions of why, when and how the above mentioned companies started their online business and publications and how they reacted to the 'new media bubble' in the beginning of the 2000's. Some of the companies built large mobile portals and started with many other investments. However, instead of great success they wasted a lot money with them. Some of the companies even built many totally new online brands which they were forced to close quite soon after their birth because of the poor success. This paper presents the historical timeline of 10 years of the history of Finnish new media publications in 1995-2004.

The technologisation of journalism: historical perspectives on news, technology and labour
Henrik Örnebring
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

The relationship between journalism and new technology is the focus of many current debates about/within the news – as in for example discussions of blogging-as-journalism, the rise of user-generated content in news, and the rise of the 24/7 news cycle. The technological impact on journalism (both as a set of practices and as a set of texts) is highly noticeable for newsworkers themselves and highly visible for audiences. However, it is rarely acknowledged that a set of processes that taken together can be termed the technologisation of journalism has been going on since at least the mid-to-late 19th century and the introduction of the telegraph and various other production technologies. The rise of user-generated content in journalism (in the form of blogs, image provision etc) is frequently hailed as a democratisation of journalism. In contrast to this celebratory view, I want to develop a framework for understanding the journalism/technology relationship that is critical and historical. Drawing upon theorists like Hardt (1990, 2000, also see Hardt & Brennen (eds) 1995) and Winston (1998) I suggest that the technologisation of journalism instead can be viewed as an erosion of key democratic ideals and processes, and that technologisation is intimately linked to societal processes of deskilling of labour (Braverman, 1974) and casualisation of labour (Heery & Salmon (eds) 2000, Burchell et al (eds) 2002).

Website History: Theoretical and Methodological Problems in an Emerging Field
Niels Brügger
Institut for Informations- og Medievidenskab, Aarhus Universitet

Today no one would dispute that the internet has been an important part of our communicative infrastructure for some years now. Nevertheless internet history is a relatively blank sheet within media history, not to mention the sub-discipline of website history. This paper puts on the agenda some of the new and fundamental theoretical and methodological problems within the emerging field of website history. The focus will be on questions emanating form the specific being of one of the main sources: the website itself. The discussion will take as its starting point the research project entitled 'The History of dr.dk 1996-2006' (the history of the website of Danmarks Radio, funded by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities and the Danish Ministry of Culture). Since websites are dynamic they must be archived in order to create a stable object of study, but what are the problems related to the use of archived websites? The paper will address the following three interrelated issues: 1) What is a website? 2) The archived website as document 3) The problems of time. The problems of time will be discussed on the basis of the first test of archived websites in different web archives (spring 2007). As a result of the characteristics of the website, serious problems are appearing on the horizon as regards source reliability and references, and source criticism appears to have acquired new, perhaps unfeasible, responsibilities.

Nerdic Myths: Missing Dimensions in the Archaeology of Counterculture Computing
Jeff Taylor
University of Lapland

This paper identifies and explores the largely unexamined connection between dominant cultural discourses and new media developments of the 1970s within the 'radical computing' subculture of the era and especially concentrated in the Bay Area of San Francisco – what Roszak has called the Computing Counterculture – and how these discourses have continued to recur and impact development of media as cultural phenomena ever since. Paramount and integral were the interconnected discourses surrounding Politics, Community and Education within the cultural context of counterculture computing, as within the counterculture itself. These discourses have been mainly neglected from even the few social histories that have focused at all on the era. As media archaeology, this paper aims to reveal hidden and suppressed dimensions of media history in order, ultimately, to help us better understand the forces that are shaping present media culture. The challenge is thus twofold: 1) to comprehensively demonstrate the significance of counterculture discourse regarding not only politics, the galvanizing discourse of anti-Vietnam War politics, but also discourse regarding education and community – discourses that were in each arena alternative and therefore 'counter' to their mainstream counterparts; and 2) to articulate the hypothesis that these three discourses – of alternative politics, education and community – have recurred cyclically since the 70s as 'webs of signification' constituting subsequent new media.

Samisk pressehistorie
Arne Johansen Ijäs
Samisk høgskole

I forbindelse med samisk nasjonsbygging i Norge, Sverige, Finland og Russland har samisk presse fått en sentral oppgave. Særlig i Norge har samene sett betydningen av samiske aviser. I dag kommer det ut to samiskspråklige aviser to ganger i uka i Kautokeino og Karasjok. Denne artikkelen gir en oversikt over samisk pressehistorie fra den første avisa ble trykket i 1873 og fram til i dag. Historien preges av ulike faser, og mange av utgivelsene var døgnfluer. I begynnelsen av 1900-tallet ble det gitt ut flere aviser i forbindelse den første samepolitiske mobiliseringen. Midt på 1900-tallet lå samisk presse nede for telling, men etter andre verdenskrig startet et iherdig arbeid på norsk side for å etablere samisk presse på nytt. I 1956 så avisa Sagat dagens lys, og i 1978 startet avisa Sámi Áigi i Karasjok som etter en konkurs i 1994 ble til Min Áigi. Samme år ble det etablert nok en samisk avis i Kautokeino, Aššu. Artikkelen vil drøfte bakgrunnen for etableringen av de samiske avisene og sette dette i sammenheng med nyere samisk historie.

The history of Estonian printed press during the years of Soviet occupation -- how to research it?
Tiiu Kreegipuu
University of Tartu, Department of Journalism and Communication

The media system in the occupied Baltic States during the years 1940-1991 was to exist in the conditions of a totalitarian society. The historical research of the media in Estonia during the years of the Soviet occupation raises several theoretical and methodological questions, as all of the media channels were handled as the tools of the Soviet propaganda. . My research is focused on the Soviet Estonian newspapers. I am trying to find out how the Soviet media system in general was introduced in Estonia, which were the ideological goals of the journalism and how the newspapers were turned into the weapons of the Communist Propaganda. The most intriguing questions are: how to read the Soviet newspapers today, which theoretical and methodological approaches could be used to find out how the press was communicating with the society, how were the newspapers as propaganda vehicles supposed to function from the standpoint of the Soviet ideologists and to what extent the propagandistic goals were achieved in reality. As the Soviet newspapers were written in the ideological political discourse rather than in a journalistic one, the methods of textual analysis can lead us to interesting results. I have come to conclusions, that methods like discourse analysis could lead us to very interesting results. It's wide scale of methodological and analytical approaches reveal much not just about the current discourse or text but about the media system and totalitarian society in general.

Children and television in Iceland: Changing times – changing questions?
Kjartan Olafsson
University of Akureyri

The proposed presentation will focus on the issue of stability in long term research projects like Children and television in Iceland. It seems to be a commonly held idea that research projects using repeated surveys as a method for measuring social change should aim at keeping changes in the research design between surveys at an absolute minimum. However, when the time span of a research project is stretched over several decades and when the subject matter is characterized by instability, rather than stability, the ideal of standardization will eventually come into conflict with the need to keep the project in touch with its research subject. The presentation will discuss how these issues have been addressed in the research project Children and Television in Iceland by focusing on the question used to measure the amount of television viewing in the (by now) six waves of surveys conducted in the project. The question of quantity has always been among central issues in media research and few researchers would probably say that information on how much one reads, listens or views is of no value at all. Measuring the amount of media usage is however a complicated matter and when the variable time is added the issue becomes even more difficult.

Mediehistoria

Arbetsgruppen intresserar sig för mediehistoria i dess vidaste bemärkelse. I de nordiska länderna har mediehistorisk forskning gamla anor och starka traditioner, främst inom forskning kring mediernas politiska och ekonomiska historia samt medieinstitutionernas historia. Arbetsgruppen för mediehistoria vill både ta tillvara detta arv och utveckla fältet mediehistoria med nya perspektiv, såsom till exempel receptionshistoria, mediernas kulturhistoria, historiska analyser av specifika genrer och medierade diskurser, teknikhistoria, historiska analyser med komparativt perspektiv (t ex jämförelser mellan länder och mellan medier) och mediehistoria som belyser det inbördes förhållandet mellan olika medieinstitutioner och innehålltyper. Vi välkomnar också papers om metodologi, historiografisk teori, arkivvetenskap och dylikt.

Media History

The working group covers media history in its broadest sense. Historical research on the media has a long and lively tradition in the Nordic countries, in particular studies of the political and economical history of the media and the history of individual media institutions. The working group on Media History wishes to build on this heritage and expand the field using new perspectives, such as for example the history of media reception, cultural histories of the media, historical analysis of particular genres and mediated discourses, the history of technology, historical analyses using a comparative perspective (e.g. comparisons between different countries or between different media) and media histories that highlight the reciprocal relationship between different media. We also welcome papers on methodology, historiographic theory, archival studies, and so on.